Brand/Advertising, Australia

There is sheer power in a strategically crafted master brand. Not only can it be used as a guide for all your brand communications, but the brand intelligence invested in it can be leveraged to completely transform your business. The purpose of a strategic branding program is to meaningfully, logically and visually communicate your brand’s offer, ultimately driving profitability. (more…)

In the land of brand (in Australia), some practitioners would agree it is enormously restrictive to align the discipline of branding so closely with the “logo”. The weight we assign this particular brand asset may contribute to a brand’s profitability over time by cleverly shifting perceptions, appealing to the visceral and ultimately affecting consumer purchase decisions, but a brand’s actual success is derived from a more complex application of the term. (more…)

Australia has some bright sparks in the brand and design industry, but who’d know it outside of its network? As a marketing discipline that is responsible for the creation, development, evolution and management of brands, it is curious why design and branding in this country still exists as a mystery to those who are not directly involved.

My prompt for this article comes from online searches (including key industry media) that consistently fail to show much content with a brand and design focus to attract readers in the business, brand management or marketing sectors. The point here is that design and business are intrinsically linked yet there is a clear disconnect between the two. Why? (more…)

Shazam and the World Cup? What’s going on? Where are you? You came out at the Super Bowl with your most successful campaign yet with a live performance from Bruno Mars, and you’ve been appearing on US TV screens for almost two years. The world’s biggest sporting event launches and you’re almost invisible?

Shazam enabled marketing or the Shazam integrated experience – whatever you want to call it, the concept takes engagement to a new level. Australian audiences are still uncertain of the viewing disruption but we’re well on the way to creating meaningful and relevant second-screen entertainment experiences.

Regardless, I’ve got to say the World Cup must be the biggest missed marketing opportunity of all. The numbers speak volumes. In 2010, 106 million people watched the Super Bowl in contrast to the 909.6 million TV viewers who watched at least 1 minute of the 2010 World Cup Final. The event is generating about 500,000 mentions daily and is likely to be the largest social sports event ever.

For Shazam, the appointment of Patricia Parra (ex Hulu content marketing executive) to the role of CMO on 12 June may have come 12 months too late, although it does flag an exciting era ahead for the audio identification app brand. The brand headed up in Australia by CEO Andrew Fisher, opened a local office in 2013 and in the 12 months prior had launched campaigns with global brands including Diageo, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, Unilever, HTC, Brown Forman, Blackmores, SC Johnson, Lion and American Express. Maybe these should re-run, timed with our (consumers’) better understanding of second screen engagement as a way to connect with brands. I’m not sure we were clear on the point of it all back then.

Pinterest, on the other hand, was on the case six months ago with the launch of its Place Pins campaign designed to help people find places to watch the World Cup matches. The campaign originated out of the US with partners ESPN, Conde Nast Traveller and Trip Advisor, a strategic and clever move – http://www.pinterest.com/watchworldcup/

…and for the record in just under an hour there have been 2,451 posts on Twitter at #WorldCup2014. Amazing!

Perhaps brand consultancies have finally reached a level of maturity in Australia to be detected by both client and media radars. A decade ago it was all begging and bribery to successfully place a brand consultancy news story, unless you were dealing with a UK journo or a niche trade title. But here we are in 2012 and B&T has run three online stories already this week not to mention the run Campaign Brief has also given a few. I aways knew it was just a matter of time, albeit with still frequent misuse of a word I detest – ‘logo’ – and the correct meaning and use of the term ‘brand identity’.

Like this:

“I just started bleeding & I feel fantastic!” Typical image used for feminine hygiene products.

JWT’s latest campaign for Kotex works for all the reasons the media have spelled out. But for many women it will work simply because it was created by women, and therefore makes sense. It’s not that the ads are even that hilarious – JWT could have pushed the humor further – but the campaign is market focused, clever, relevant and fresh.

Like this:

This copy line for Tipalet cigarettes marketed to men, will give you a laugh! How bold we once were.

As a follow up to the last post, I came across some interesting work showcased on Lovely Package, a comprehensive and good looking packaging blog worth visiting. Check out the student designs for Nomad Self Lighting cigarettes by Matthew Smiraldo, Norway’s Andreas Fossheim’s packaging for cannabis cigarettes (if they were legal), and Derek Hunt’s packaging for X Tobacco. Cool stuff.

Australia is about to become the first country in the world to ban tobacco companies from branding their products. As of July 1, 2012, no brand images or colors will be permitted in cigarette packaging design. Additionally, there are to be restrictions introduced online plus a 25 percent hike in excise tax bringing a pack of smokes to about $A16.70 or $US15.40.

In Australia where tobacco advertising is outlawed, the government described cigarette packaging as, “one of the last remaining frontiers for cigarette advertising.” And so it looks like Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd is about to take the big boys down. Only brand and product names will be allowed using a standard color, position, font and size making cigarette packs look similar to a prescription medication.

Creative people really do help make the world go round. They make us laugh, they make us inquire, they inspire and they make life worth living by challenging us to experience things differently. It is music, art, design, literature, poetry and communications in all its forms – any place where ideas are king.

Creative expression in any form permits and in fact invites us to understand our place in the world. It is where politics and real life collide peacefully. Once an artistic expression is created and shared it remains a statement of a time, a feeling, a moment, an experience for both artist and audience. It can’t be amended, overturned, re-instated or edited.

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne created a fragrance as the key element of the charity marketing campaign for people who can’t see. The main idea of the Guide Dogs Australia project was to develop something that would be easily noticed by all people including the blind and vision impaired. So, smell was employed as the basis for the campaign.

The new scent was created with the help of Kit Cosmetics. The packaging of the fragrance called Support Scent has the name of the product printed in Braille and infused with the fragrance, so that it would be easy for the blind people to determine the scent among other products.

The Support Scent range including the fragrance, scented body lotion, body wash and a candle is available at department and cosmetics boutiques as well as online stores. All the proceeds will be donated to Guide Dogs Australia to support the organization’s projects.

Like this:

BRISBANE: Only 12% of the top 50 Australian brands are listening and responding to their customers’ comments on Twitter, according to a social media study by advertising agency BCM.

BCM analysed nearly 8,000 relevant mentions for 81 brands or organisations on Twitter throughout two weeks in Q4 2009 to monitor how brands were responding to consumers’ negative and positive commentary.

The findings revealed only 54 of the top 81 brands had Twitter profiles and of these only six brands actively listened and engaged with customer comments, with the majority (72%) using Twitter as a one-way channel to publicise promotions and promote news updates.

Telstra was the most responsive company responding to 45% of negative and positive comments, but the brand also has one of the largest levels of commentary receiving more than 10 times as many negative comments as positive ones.

Flight Centre topped the unweighted brand response scores with an 80% response rate although the brand does not receive as much comments as other organisations.

Big Pond, Vodafone, Telstra, Australia Post and the Australian Taxation Office received the highest amount of negative commentary on Twitter.

However, the survey was undertaken before Toyota’s global recalls which would impact differently on the brand’s social media commentary.

BCM partner Kevin Moreland said whether brands “like it or not, conversations about them are happening on a daily basis and brand or product mentions are becoming intertwined into social networking activities”.

Like this:

Members of the Royal Australian Navy have been used to recreate their workplaces in a series of new ads to encourage people to join the service as well as to inspire existing service men and women.

Created by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, the ‘Be part of something bigger’ campaign used almost 100 Navy personnel from HMAS Albatross to recreate different naval vessels including a frigate, transport ship and submarine.

Like this:

SYDNEY: Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is set to review the creative arrangements for its retail insurance providers, NRMA, SGIO and SAIC, less than a year after consolidating the account with STW agency Human,AdNews magazine revealed.

The Sydney-based Human has handled creative for all brands in the NRMA Insurance group since July 2009 when NRMA dropped Brisbane-based Junior from its Queensland ad duties.

Human spearheaded NRMA’s repositioning in 2008 when the company dropped its iconic “Help” tagline after more than 20 years. The launch of “Unworry” was an attempt to move away from the fear-led marketing that dominates the insurance sector.